Hi Paulina,
Welcome to your personalized Grit Lab Report!
We will go week by week, reviewing everything you have told us through Poll Everywhere.
We hope this will help you reflect on what you have learned and experienced during Grit Lab.
Important note!
Sometimes, you may not have been able to respond to all polls.
If the data for one of the polls is missing, the automatic report will display NA, or ““.
Okay, let’s get started!
The first half of Grit Lab delves deep intp the passion facet of Grit.
We like to call it Choose Easy, because we think gritty people pursue what they enjoy.
Putting it graphically, gritty people tend to pursue the intersection of these four circles.
The first time we met, you told us where you were on the grit rubric.
Regarding passion you picked Stage 1: I’m equally interested in pretty much everything but not especially committed to any one interest .
Regarding perseverance you picked .
As you know, grit grows, so don’t worry if you are not yet where you’d like to be in your grit journey.
Hopefully, this class will help you become grittier each day.
In week 2, we looked at your interests.
Interest is an emotion, and it is the opposite of boredom.
Your interests are the activities or subjects that spontaneously grab your attention.
Trying things out and seeing how you feel is the best way to refine your interests.
In week 3, we studied values, your beliefs about what is important.
You said your top three values were benevolence, achievement, and security.
You wrote a “This I Believe” essay, and here’s where you located it on Schwartz’s value taxonomy.
When we talked about strengths in week 4, you said your personality strength was conscientiousness.
You said your top three talents were analytic, musical, and kinesthetic.
We then talked about goal hierarchies.
You said you had a pretty good idea about your top-level goal.
We discussed self-concordance, or how much a goal aligns to your deeply held values and beliefs.
A goal you said you will be pursuing for the next six months is to getting a good gmat score .
Here is how self-concordant that goal was:
Don’t worry if your self-concordance for that particular goal is low.
It might mean that you need to reframe that goal in a way that makes it more relevant to your deep self, or change it!
Remember that self-concordance is goal specific, so other goals might be more self-concordant.
We then transitioned to the second part of Grit Lab:
Work Smart
In week 6, we looked at goal setting and planning.
You WOOPed!
For your Wish, what you wanted to accomplish, you said Study for my midterm .
For your Outcome, what would happen if your wish came true, you said Happy .
For you Obstacle, what it is within you that stands in your way, you said Being overwhelmed cuz i don’t know even where to start .
For your Plan, you created this when-then plan to achieve your goal: When I meet with my friend on Wednesday I will study .
Whether you changed your WOOP or stuck to that one, here’s where it landed between being a total fail, and going exactly according to plan.
And here’s how much you learned
These goals are hard, and despite our best efforts, our plans can fail.
The important thing is that you learn something along the way!
In week 7, we talked about deliberate practice.
You shared you’ve done daily practice in Piano .
We learned that deliberate practice requires a challenging, hyperspecific goal, maximum concentration, instant feedback, and is often done alone.
In week 8, we discussed feedback.
Even though feedback can be hard to take, it is often the key to improve. So if you want to improve, seek it actively!
You said you felt Anxious when receiving critical feedback, and Anxious when receiving positive feedback.
We then turned to learning about stress.
In week 9, you reported feeling a little of stress in your life right now, the primary source of it being relationships .
We also talked about adversity and failure.
Although related, adversity and failure are different:
Adversity happens to us, whereas failure is something for which we are generally more responsible.
However, how we interpret stress and failure matters…
Interestingly, research has found that people who believe that stress can facilitate learning and growth experience enhanced performance, well-being, and health.
And failure—not achieving a particular goal—can be interpreted as “I’m learning!” and lead you to look for the lesson in that experience.
We closed the Work Smart section of the class by talking about habits.
Throughout the semester, you practice habit building using your Build-A-Habit Guide book.
You describe the habit you chose as Health .
Whether you were successful in habit building or not, this is how much you learned.
Finally, what good is grit if we do not dream for others?
So, we transitioned to Paying it Forward.
In week 10, we looked at mentors: role models that take an active role in your growth.
Hopefully, your mentor was authoritative, being both supportive and demanding.
Here’s how you described them:
You also wrote a gratitude letter to Other .
In one word, you said it made you feel Happy .
One way of paying it forward is having a prosocial, beyond-the-self purpose. Here’s how you responded to items assessing that.
… and so quickly we arrived at the end of the semester.
Here’s how your mood varied over these weeks.
![]()
Do you notice any patterns? Is there anything that correlates with your mood?
Here you can scroll through all the quotes you wrote to summarize each class.
| |
| They are people who finish what they start |
| Interest isn't something you get to pick |
| Learning rate depends mostly on what you already know |
| Sampling is important for hot streaks, it is until hot streaks when you specialize |
| Specificity is what helps you close the gap towards meeting your goals |
| Fantasizing about my crush liking me back is less likely to make it happen :( |
| It is better to ask for advice than for feedback |
| It is important to have support in facing adversity |
| Relying on willpower doesn't work |
| Mentors help you believe in yourself |
| The five minute favor is a way to stay a giver sustainably |
In the final class, we looked back to everything we’ve learned together and to how our passion and perseverance evolved during this class.
Here are the comments from your Grit Lab Teammates:
| |
| Carolyn Tsiang |
| Paulina's warmth and thoughtfulness has been an integral asset to our team. Her ability to radiate positivity shines through in every group discussions we have. She genuinely cares about each team member, consistently ensuring that everyone feels valued and heard. Her conscientious nature, combined with an eagerness to learn and listen, exemplifies her grit and determination. I deeply admire Paulina for her ability to uplift those around her. Her genuineness is evident in every interaction, and she is never hesitant to share her opinions in a manner that enriches our conversations, making them deeper and more meaningful.
Through her discovery project, Paulina opened my eyes to the joy and fulfillment found in rediscovering lost passions. Her journey back to playing the piano was a deep and enriching experience. Watching her fingers dance over the keys with renewed enthusiasm, I learned how reconnecting with a past passion can reignite a sense of inner joy and creativity. Her dedication to deliberate practice and trying out new genres of music, like jazz piano, showcases curiosity as she embraces new experiences. Thank you, Paulina, for being such an incredible table partner and teammate this semester! |
| Olivia Morganti |
| Paulina is a great teammate. She is lively and shows her passion when talking. She can effectively convey her ideas. Paulina is a people person and easily draws people in, sharing her thoughts and opinions with them. Paulina can relate to others, mark connections that bring people closer, and show how they relate. Paulina spoke very highly of her friends and the people in her life. This is always a sign of a deeply good person who can appreciate their connections and speak highly of them to others.
I was particularly impressed by Paulina’s discovery project. I appreciate hearing about her process through our time together in class. When she presented, I was able to better understand her history with music and see how it always seems to find its way back into her life. The video she showed of her playing was very beautiful and impressive. Her commitment to staying connected to her talents is admirable.
|
| Gabbi Coetzee |
| I want to expresse my sincere appreciation for Paulina's incredible humor and positive energy within the team. Her lightheartedness and openness made discussions truly enjoyable and created a safe space for everyone to express themselves. Paulina's ability to share honest and relatable stories also significantly contributed to the depth of discussions. Her humor and friendliness were truly such value adds in our group discussions. I do not think our group would've gotten as close as we did without her.
In Paulina's discovery project presentation, I was fascinated by her journey of rediscovering the piano. The honesty with which Paulina shared her experiences and the challenges she faced added a meaningful layer to the project. Paulina's decision to embrace a past passion, despite the difficulties, was truly commendable. It reminded me of the importance of perseverance and the joy that comes from revisiting neglected interests. The project definitely resonated on a personal level, especially as the team often discussed the challenges of balancing hobbies with academic commitments. Paulina's decision to return to a skill she had previously quit demonstrated remarkable courage and determination. |
We hope you have emerged from Grit Lab a little grittier than you started.
Do you want to see how your grit rubric changed?
Drumroll please…
Don’t worry if the rubric doesn’t yet reflect growth. It is only a coarse measure that cannot replace your own self-reflection.
In any case, grit is not built in a day…
…remember that progress is never smooth…
…so stay passionate and persevering in the lifelong quest of choosing easy, working smart, and paying it forward.
With grit and gratitude,
Angela and the Grit Lab team.